Bob Bromley

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Just a couple quick comments and I appreciated the discussions and many of the viewpoints raised and I agree with many, if not most.

I’d say – without detracting from Mrs. Groenewegen’s point about the role of MLAs, which I agreed with – nobody wants more MLAs and a more expensive government if we can avoid it. That’s the key part. Yet, given our current process, just about the only way we can achieve fair representation is by adding MLAs.

I think Mr. Miltenberger laid out a very key point, we haven’t asked how much government do we need. Many of us have asked that...

Thank you, Madam Chair. I’m pleased to participate in this debate today and discussion of the final report. I’d like to thank the Electoral Boundaries Commission for their work. Trying to penetrate this quagmire, it is certainly never an easy job or an easy process, but I think we do recognize that and try and provide some helpful guidelines, specifically the plus or minus 25 percent goal for fair representation; that is every riding should be within 25 percent of the mean population, the average number of people per riding in order to be considered fair representation, and that we should give...

This Minister is out to lunch. The expert panel was an industry panel. There have been two mines approved in the last few months. There’s a list of mines that are on the docket to be approved. The biggest subsidy of all may be the pre-cleanup service that we offer when mines close. Past experiences at Faro, Giant, Colomac, Ptarmigan and Tom Mines should teach us that. All are costing more to clean up than either we or the federal government get back ever in revenues.

Under devolution we will assume full responsibility for cleanup costs on new mines. Given the clear and unaddressed inadequacies...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to follow up from my Member’s statement on Friday, which was on the Standing Committee on Economic Development and Infrastructure’s tabled document on responsible extraction, wherein the Pembina Institute reviewed the Industry Panel Report on Pathways to Mineral Development. I’d like to note right off that the panel public consultation effort was about a third of what was funded, unlike the economic development opportunities report which was its full budget and did a comprehensive consultation.

To focus on subsidies today, could the Minister please explain how...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Seventy percent of inspections have failed to happen. We know that. Jericho. The Minister says there are no failures today. Baloney. The National Energy Board recently proposed new requirements to make sure companies exploring for oil and gas in the Sahtu don’t get to leave the public on the hook to clean up after them. Does the Minister support these new requirements?

How does the Minister know? He didn’t talk to them. Clearly, the Minister is not interested in speaking to residents. He said it himself. This is talking to the industry, saying what is our wish list here. I think we all agree that mines should produce a net benefit for the public, not a liability. The Mineral Development Strategy Industry Panel Report, on behalf of our 42,000 people, proposes at least seven new government subsidies for the mining industry.

Could the Minister explain which of these subsidies provides the best return on investment for the public? Is it the publicly funded...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Last week the Giant Mine Project Team released its response to the environmental assessment. I’m glad they released it. Having the government play the role of proponent and regulator is confusing. If this was a mining company cleaning up its own mess, we would demand that there be no secret communications with the regulator, so there should be no secrets here either.

As a co-proponent, the Giant Mine Project Team includes part of our government. They are proposing to do work that would normally be done by mining companies, but they are not doing this to make or save...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s also with great pleasure that I recognize John and Helen Parker, who have had a big influence on my life, as they well know. I’m very glad to see them in the House. Mahsi.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yesterday the Standing Committee on Economic Development and Infrastructure tabled a report by the Pembina Institute, entitled Responsible Extraction. As we heard, the report was commissioned because there were substantive concerns that the industry panel report towards the GNWT Mineral Development Strategy seemed to be not only far from public interest policy, but leaning towards an industry wish list of support and public expense. I mean no disrespect to the authors of that report, but I think that their terms of reference and their composition did not foster public...

Thanks to the Minister for that response. I’m glad to hear he’s all over the safety issue. That’s number one, of course, and that happens with this increased traffic now on the Ingraham Trail.

I’m sad to hear confirmation that the secondary road will not be built and I hope the Minister will look into working with industry to see if he can get them to put it in. We do a number of things, because, I mean, it’s clear that this damage does happen with truck traffic. Any resident out there and the Department of Highways can tell you. We do things in a number of different ways up here. The winter...